Biography
Boccioni is widely acknowledged to have been the most significant visual artist associated with Futurism. Equally gifted as a writer, he was also one of the movement's most important theorists and played a leading role in drafting several of its key statements. Born in Calabria, Boccioni settled in Rome in 1899 where he met Gino Severini while attending classes at the Scuola Libera del Nudo. Like Severini, he was instructed in the Divisionist technique by Giacomo Balla, and became an accomplished exponent of the style.Symbolism and Expressionism also exerted important influences on his early work. In 1906 he travelled to Paris and Russia, settling in Milan on his return to Italy. Boccioni's restless nature and compulsion to create a "living art" resonated perfectly with F. T. Marinetti's call for a radical renewal of Italian culture, and he became one of Futurism's most passionate advocates.His major contribution to Futurist theory was the concept of 'plastic dynamism' – the idea that objects have no fixed form but are constantly modified by the action of surrounding forces and objects. This theory informed both his paintings and sculptures until his untimely death in 1916, when he was thrown from his horse during military training.
Exhibitions featuring Umberto Boccioni
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